Former state Sen. Jane Orie disbarred

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Wednesday disbarred former state Sen. Jane Orie, who was released from prison earlier this year.

A jury convicted Orie, 52, of McCandless, in 2012 of swindling taxpayers by using her legislative staff to perform campaign work and later trying to cover up the scheme. The former Senate majority whip was released from prison in February.

Orie's first trial in March 2011 ended in a mistrial when she introduced fraudulent evidence. Following a jury trial in March 2012, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning sent Orie to an all-female correctional facility in Crawford County.

The Supreme Court stripped her of her ability to practice law in the state beginning Jan. 9.

Justices on the high court also disbarred another Western Pennsylvania lawyer. J. Russell McGregor Jr. of East McKeesport, who practiced in both Westmoreland and Allegheny counties, will no longer be sanctioned as of Jan. 9.

McGregor, 53, a former Ligonier attorney, pleaded guilty in Westmoreland County court in March to seven felony charges related to accusations he raided a client's trust fund. Investigators said McGregor illegally withdrew more than $95,000 from an account left by a late mother for a son she adopted from Russia.

McGregor is the son of the late Common Pleas Judge James R. McGregor Sr., who served 30 years on the Allegheny County bench.